Douglas Penick

Nine on Taishi

 

 

I.)

 

And so the journey is this unfolding of all assumptions in the field where one wanders.

 

This field in which one wanders, in which one is dissolving, from which one emerged, if  only for a moment.

 

This field, this vast universe and small close up world, if there is existing, it is not individual existing except inasmuch as one is a node, like a bubble of air rising from the depths of the sea, or perhaps emerging in the surface of a breaking wave, but emerging distinctly and briefly, to burst, releasing a small sphere of air out into a vast shapeless atmosphere and simultaneously, the water that momentarily held a distinct and shining shape resolves back into the water of the sea from which it is now utterly indistinguishable, without history, or the possibility of history.

 

And so there is this gray and hazy afternoon when the tree trunks are black, the branches pale bronze and seeming to shine slightly against the misty blue of the nearby foothills.

 

So to sit without the promise of meaning or escape as one moment will succeed another, even as one tries to establish of this moment and the significance of that.

 

To open and submit to fleeting messages emerging

 

Shaping and taking shape in the streams emerging and passing.

 

Forming the world as it forms you.

 

 

2.)

 

We two are the spirits of two enduring pine trees.

You see us dwell, one within view of the other

And far apart on distant peaks.

 

We are man and wife.

Even though

Plants they, they say, have no heart.

 

There is more even than heart.

 

The spirit of a lone pine,

Sounds in the still air – a name:

Takasago.

 

The spirit of a lone pine,

Sounds in the still air - a name:

Sumiyoshi.

 

The names are whispers in the starry night.

 

Vast space is the heart.

They call each to the other;

Their voices weave in the pine boughs.

 

They are paired

They are man and wife

United in the life of air.

 

They are the sweep of courtship.

They are the exaltation of poetry.

They are the two great anthologies

Which are the future of poetry.

 

 

3.)

 

In the summer, Empress Suiko gave to Prince Shotoku Taishi her daughter, Princess Udodonokaidaku. as his wife.

 

It was said of this princess: The consort was intelligent and astute. Her love for this Prince was genuine and deep as was his for her. 

 

It was said: when her lord's body itched, she knew where to scratch without him pointing out the place.

 

It was said: when he wished to summon retainers, she gave the orders without being asked.

 

It was said: whatever he thought, she knew beforehand. In cold weather, she kept him warm. In hot weather, she cooled him.

 

 

4.)

 

But

Who can\Who can

Who can sing of the dawn

Of the dawn of happiness or apprehension.

Who can sing of this moment we are entering.

Who can sing of this present that opens right now

It can be  sung

A song can burst out, con open

A joyful flicker of movement.

Or terror a shake of the head, a quick turning away

Before turning back to face ahead directly

A curse, a whistle

A sigh of falling in love

 

Oh but if it is to be written it can only be the moment that departs.

That is the only moment that can be caught, or slowed

 

The Princess was distressed. She asked him: "Why speak this way? Let us live a thousand years. Why speak as if this day were your last?"

 

"All things that have a beginning will have an end. It cannot be escaped.

 

“In this life, I am just a Prince in this small island, here to bring the law which orders the lives and liberates all the people.

 

“The flower once fallen cannot return to the branch.”

 

The consort wife wept.

 

 

5.)

 

Prince Shotoku Taishi said to his consort: "How fortunate I am.   Even when we die, we will be in the same tomb."

 

 

6.)

 

The Princess said:

 

Each day I stare at the ancient pine

Each day, I wait for your return.

Hurry, so I will not die of love.

 

 

7.)

 

That was the summer when Empress Suiko appointed Prince Shotoku Taishi  as First Minister and Regent.

 

The following spring, Empress Suiko issued an edict. She commanded Shtoku Taishi and Soga no Umako to promote the Buddhist teaching throughout Japan.

 

Courtiers begin building shrine halls and temples.

 

Prince Shotoku established guilds of painters, architects, musicians, ceramicists, carpentry, and flower arranging. He established schools of horsemanship and archery. The members of these guilds came together; they united themselves under the name, Taishiko.

 

 

8.)

 

The intense awareness of dissolving, the examination of parting, the sense of enduring loss, these are the easy certainties of the mind. To be aware of what is coming into being, to examine what is being born as that is happening, to rest in self-renewal plenitude is to engage what is unknown. This to enter the new, the uncertain, with contexts that are likewise unknown.

 

 

9)

 

The next summer, a seven-foot disc of wood drifted from the west onto the shore on Ahaji Island. When the islanders burned some, the fragrance spread throughout the island like a celestial perfume.

 

A new beginning has its fragrance.